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TRANSCRIPT
! Editorial
Keep "Uncle Tom's Kitchen"
Our front-page article in this is-
sue recounts the odd situation of the old cabin in Bethesda, Mary-
land, which had been purported to be the "original Uncle Tom's
Cabin." Since its 2006 purchase, this has been regarded as the
single most important Under-ground Railroad find.
What there is no disagreement about is that the farm where the
cabin is located is indeed where
prominent Underground Railroad figure Josiah Henson was en-
slaved for 35 years before his escape to Canada and fame. It
was Henson upon whom Harriet Beecher Stowe modeled the
eponymous title figure of her 1852 blockbuster, Uncle Tom's
Cabin, still ranked as the most influential book ever authored
by an American.
When at the peak of the housing
bubble in 2006 the local park
commission purchased the Riley Farm where the cabin sits, it
paid top price on the belief that the cabin was the actual spot
where Henson lived. However, it seems that some at the time of
the purchase were telling the Commission and the county gov-
ernment which authorized the purchase that in fact the cabin
was the farmhouse's kitchen and
that Henson would have resided in slave quarters now long gone.
There was plenty of blame to go around when this warning resur-
faced last month.
So, if there is no Uncle Tom's
Cabin after all, what to do?
Some now feel that the property
has insignificant historical value and should be sold to help the
cash-strapped county. Others say that Henson's proven association
with the property is more than
Underground Railroad Free Press® Independent reporting on today’s Underground Railroad
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November, 2010
Volume 5, Issue 27
Dalai Lama Receives Freedom Center Award
Timbuctoo, New Jersey. Blackdom, New Mex-ico. New Philadelphia, Illinois. Hall Town,
Maryland. The extensive rediscovered African
burial ground in New York City.
New archaeological work on lost African-
American communities led mainly by black academicians, politicians and museum staff is
busy digging out the past. Says Rex Ellis of the Smithsonian Institution, "The tradition
has been to overlook these things in the past. For us, this activity will contribute apprecia-
bly to our understanding of African Americans
Archeological Digs Reveal Black Life in 1800s and Earlier
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the Tibetan head of state and spiritual leader of
the Tibetan Buddhist Church, was awarded the International Freedom Conductor Award
by the National Underground Railroad Free-dom Center on October 20.
(continued on page two)
Said Freedom Center CEO Donald Murphy,
"We are tremendously honored and gratified that His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, will accept
our Freedom Conductor Award, which goes to individuals and organizations that have been
conspicuous and effective champions of free-dom. The Dalai Lama's tireless efforts on be-
half of Tibet - and his life-long advocacy of freedom and peace for all people - are in the
finest traditions of those abolitionists who
fought for the eradication of slavery in the 18th and 19th Centuries."
In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet in the face of persecution by China and has been living
in Dharamsala, India, the seat of the Tibetan political administration in exile. He was the
recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.
Past Freedom Conductor Award recipients in-
clude civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, South African Bishop Desmond Tutu and former
Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton for their work fundraising for Hurricane Ka-
trina and Indian Ocean tsunami survivors.
Toronto's York University
Doubt Over Building Thought to Be Uncle Tom's Cabin
It was the all-time Underground Railroad ar-cheological find but now it is in doubt.
In 2006 when the owner of the property died,
the Maryland-National Capital Park and Plan-ning Commission bought the old Bethesda,
Maryland, farmhouse with its adjoining cabin thought to have been where Josiah Henson
had been enslaved. Now, it appears that the cabin was merely a kitchen and that Henson
actually lived in the farm's slave quarters no longer standing.
Officials now question the million-dollar pur-chase of the property, especially since ap-
parently there was discussion at the time that the cabin was not the one after which
Harriet Beecher Stowe's book took it name.
The Commission is debating how now to in-
terpret the property to the public and even whether to keep or sell it. Shown here is the
debated cabin now thought to be a kitchen.
However, many officials and historians agree
that the property's proven association to Hen-son is uniquely important in its own right. See
the Free Press editorial in this issue for opin-
ion on this coming decision.
as builders and contributors to this nation."
Timbuctoo went from 37 buildings in the 1860 census to one church ten years ago to
nothing today. Local descendants say that
better economic opportunities elsewhere gradually drained the village which had been
an Underground Railroad stop. Some sites such as Hall Town were maroon communities
founded in hard-to-access locations.
For more on digs around the country, search
on Timbuctoo at washingtonpost.com.
enough to warrant keeping the property even if the county can
no longer claim to have rescued "Uncle Tom's Cabin." According
to a long October 3 article in The Washington Post, the latter opin-
ion seems to be carrying the day.
Free Press supports this view and urges the Board of County Com-
missioners of Montgomery County to keep and promote this nation-
ally important historic site.
In our next issue, we will reveal
another Maryland farm where Henson lived and his probable
blood relation to a president.
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or to download a nomination form.
As Debra McCauslin puts it, "Thousands visit
Gettysburg every year to learn about the ef-fects and aftermath of the Civil War. On your
next visit, take some time to learn about a
cause of the war."
McCauslin's cause, of course, is the Under-
ground Railroad. She operates the Quaker Valley Underground Railroad Tour featuring
visits to, among other places, two verified Underground Railroad sites, the Yellow Hill
Cemetery where a pre-Civil War African American community existed, and the Me-
nallen Friends Meetinghouse and cemetery where Quakers still meet for worship today.
The tour concludes with a slide presentation telling stories of a number of local Under-
ground Railroad figures including Kitty Payne
and her three children who were kidnapped in
1845 after having been freed from slavery.
The tour locale sits amidst a dense network of
Underground Railroad routes and safe-houses
extending up from Frederick County, Mary-
land, and branching off to the famous sites of
Columbia and Christiana, Pennsylvania.
Tours are by appointment. Visit freedomlies-
north.org to schedule or for more information.
Underground Railroad Free Press®
Independent Reporting On Today’s Underground Railroad
Peter H. Michael, Publisher [email protected]
301.874.0235
Underground Railroad Free Press is a free news-letter published by Underground Railroad Free Press Publications, 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike, Adamstown, Maryland, 21710. Back issues are available free at our web site. Underground Railroad Free Press is distributed by email. Send email address changes and new subscriber
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New Gettysburg Underground Railroad Tour
National Geographic Films Abby Hopper Gibbons Documentary
On November 9, National Geographic began
shooting a documentary film on the life of Abby Hopper Gibbons, a New York City aboli-
tionist and Underground Railroad operator.
Fern Luskin, who lives near the Manhattan
home where Gibbons grew up, says that the film will concentrate on the New York draft
riots of 1863 in which what is now known as Hopper-Gibbons House was sacked, and on
northern women's' roles in the Civil War.
One segment of the film will tell the story of
the connection between Gibbons and her di-
rect living descendant, Angela Schear, who owns one of Gibbons' diaries. Shear travelled
to New York City for the filming which is tak-
ing place on location on 29th Street in Man-hattan where Hopper-Gibbons House and
Luskin's homes are located.
In Underground Railroad days and at the time of the draft riots, Hopper-Gibbons House was
owned by Gibbons' father, Isaac Hopper, an ardent abolitionist. Because of the home's
Underground Railroad roles, the City Council of New York designated the Lamartine Place
neighborhood as a historical landmark earlier in 2010. Disputes continue between neigh-
bors and owners of Hopper-Gibbons House who continue attempting illegal alterations.
See the March, 2010, issue of Free Press at
the Free Press website archives for more.
Network to Freedom Group Dissolves Mysteriously
Friends of the Network to Freedom Associa-
tion, a private nonprofit organization founded as a fundraising arm of the National Park Serv-
ice's Network to Freedom Underground Rail-
road program, has ceased operations.
Founded in 2007, the group held national con-
ferences that year and in 2008, and was listed in 2009 as cosponsor of the Network to Free-
dom's annual conference. Donna Stokes-Lucas, the group's vice president, states that the or-
ganization disbanded in 2009 some time after she resigned from its board that January.
Alystine Turley, the group's last president, told Free Press, "I have few comments to offer
regarding the Friends Association or its future direction, other than the fact there was a
feeling new leadership was needed. I still
believe a national friends association is much needed, though it seems a difficult task to
accomplish."
Friends of the Network to Freedom Associa-
tion is a tax-exempt non-profit corporation
which, as of Free Press's last interview with its principals, had not been legally dissolved.
No one interviewed stated any knowledge of the status of the organization's assets.
Diane Miller, national program manager of the Network to Freedom, says she is not
aware of any plans to revive Friends of the Network to Freedom Association and has not
been contacted by any entity which has identified itself as a successor to the group.
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